Catholic League (German)

To create a union of Catholic states as a counterpart to this Protestant Union, early in 1608 Maximilian started negotiations with other Catholic princes.[1] On 5 July 1608, the spiritual electors manifested a tendency in favour of the confederacy suggested by Maximilian. Opinions were even expressed as to the size of the confederate military forces to be raised.

Munich Diet

In July 1609, the representatives of the Prince-Bishops of

The Munich Diet failed to erect a substantial structure for the newly formed League. On 18 June 1609, the Electors of

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The conduct of the Union in the Jülich dispute and the warlike operations of the Union army in Alsace seemed to make a battle between League and Union inevitable.

House Habsburg joins

In the year 1613 at Regensburg (Ratisbon), the Austrian Habsburgs joined the League. The assembly now appointed no less than three war-directors: Duke Maximilian, and Archdukes Albert and Maximilian of Austria. The object of the League was now declared "a Christian legal defense".

The membership of the Habsburg monarchy made the League part of the struggles between the emperor and his Protestant vassals in Bohemia and Lower Austria, that would lead to the beginning of the Thirty Years' War. The first half of the war would see the emperor using the Catholic League forces as the most important part of his Imperial army.

Bavaria leaves in protest

Duke Maximilian refused to accept the

Already having been crowned

Catholic League reestablished

At the end of 1618, the position of the Emperor in Bohemia as in Lower and Upper Austria gradually became critical. Searching for help, the Emperor tried to restore the League. A meeting of several of the ecclesiastical Princes decided to reconstruct the League on its original basis. It would consist of two groups: the Rhenish district under the presidency of Mainz, and the Oberland district, presided by Bavaria; the treasury and the military command were to be considered separate. Maximilian could only lead the whole of the troops when he had to appear in the Rhenish district. On 31 May, the Oberland both groups were established and bound themselves to render mutual help for six years.

Treaty of Munich

The

Now the formation of a confederate army began. With 7,000 men, Bavaria supplied the largest contribution to the army, whose strength was fixed at Würzburg in December 1619, as 21,000 infantry and 4000 cavalry. Commander in chief was Johann Tserclaes, Count of Tilly, a descendant of a Catholic Brabantine family.

Decline and end of the Protestant Union

Facing the superiority of the League army of 30,000 men confronting the Protestant Union's army of 10,000, on 3 July 1620, the Union agreed to cease all hostilities between both parties during the war in Austria and Bohemia in the

The League in War

Bohemian campaign

Without the risk of an attack the League could use all its military forces to support the emperor. The same month, the army was relocated to Upper Austria. Tilly won the Battle of White Mountain north of Prague on 8 November 1620, in which half of the enemy forces were killed or captured, losing only 700 men. The Emperor regained control over Bohemia and the first stage of the League's activity during the Thirty Years' War ended.

Palatinate campaigns

1622 campaign

In the spring of 1622 General Tilly moved the League's army to invade the

After that battle the Protestant forces still fighting for Frederick V of the Palatinate withdrew over the Rhine and allowed the Catholic League army freedom of action. Consequently, Tilly captured the city of Heidelberg, Frederick's main city, following an eleven-week siege on September 19. Mannheim followed on November 2, after a ten day siege.

This could have meant the end of the war. With the exception of the still besieged fortress of Frankenthal, the Electoral Palatinate was occupied by League forces while Count Frederick was in Dutch exile.

Stadtlohn campaign

Alas, in 1623, Frederick had Christian of Brunswick, raise another army to continue the fight. However, Christian found little success and no allies on his short campaign. When Tilly approached with the League army, the Protestants made for the Dutch border. Tilly cut them off five miles short of it in the Battle of Stadtlohn on August 6, destroying another Protestant army.

This victory marked the end of the Bohemian-Palatinate phase of the war. Armed opposition against the Emperor and his anti-Protestant policies had ceased.

Danish War

This caused Denmark's king Christian IV to enter the Thirty Years' War in 1625 to protect Protestantism and also in a bid to make himself the primary leader of Northern Europe.

The league's army fought and defeated the Danish on 26–27 August 1626 at the Battle of Lutter, destroying more than half the fleeing Danish army. Because this and other victories by Wallenstein, Denmark was forced to sue for peace at the Treaty of Lübeck.

Edict of Restitution

Supported by the Catholic princes and their victorious League army, the emperor now moved to denounce Protestantism as illegal in many territories of Northern Germany.

In March 1629, emperor Ferdinand II passed the Edict of Restitution. It was specifically aimed at restoring the situation of the 1555 Peace of Augsburg in ecclesiastical territories that had strayed from "legal" Catholic faith and rule, in the decades since then.

Sack of Magdeburg

While the Swedish King

The Peace of Prague of 30 May 1635, was a treaty between the Holy Roman Emperor, Ferdinand II, and most of the Protestant states of the Empire. It effectively ended the civil war aspect of the Thirty Years' War. The Edict of Restitution of 1629, was effectively revoked, with the terms of the Peace of Augsburg of 1555 being reestablished.

One of the most important regulations was that formal alliances between states of the Empire were prohibited. The armies of the various states were to be unified with those of the Emperor as an army for the Empire as a whole. The result of this clause was the end of the Catholic League, a now prohibited alliance between states of the Empire.

As well as ending the fighting between the various states, the treaty also ended religion as a source of national conflict; the principle of cuius regio, eius religio was established for good within the Empire.

References